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SENATE No. 51, 



COMMUNICATION 



SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 



2 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, 



L 



(50 



eominonU3eaUlj of Mun^atlm 






In Senate, March 5, A. D. 1839. 

Ordered, That the Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion be requested to furnish the Senate with the amount 
of expense incurred by said Board, or by said Secretary, 
for printing, from the organization of said Board to the 
present time, with the name of the document, the number 
printed, the amount which each number and kind have 
cost, designating particularly the object of such document. 
Also the expense of distribution, stating the amount paid 
to the Sheriffs of the several counties, and to others who 
may have received a compensation from the State for the 
distributing said documents. 

Also all other expenditures of said Board of Education, 
or said Secretary, in the perfortnance of the duties as- 
signed them, and the compensation they each receive. 

Attest, 

CHARLES CALHOUN, Clerk. 



P 24 ^0/ 
D.ofD. 



1839.] SENATE -No. 51. 3 



To THE Hon. Myron Lawrence, 

President of the Senate. 
•Sir, — 

An order, adopted by the Senate on the 5th inst., hav- 
ing requested the Secretary of the Board of Education 
"to furnish the Senate with the amount of expense in- 
cin-red by said board, or by said Secretary, for printing, 
from the organization of said board to the present time, 
with the name of the document, the number printed, the 
amount wliich each number and kind have cost, desi^nat- 
ing particuhuiy the object of such document. Also liie 
expense of distribution, stating the amount paid to the 
sheriffs of the several counties, and to otiiers who may 
have received a compensation from the State for the dis- 
tributing said documents ; 

"Also all other expenditures of said Board of Educa- 
tion, or said Secretary, in the performance of the duties as- 
signed them, and the compensation they each receive ;" — 

1 hereby, in compliance with said request, respectfully 
submit the following statement. 

The Board of Education was organized on the 29th 
day of June, 1837. 

The only expenses " incurred by tfie board, or by its 
Secretary, for printing, from the organization of the board 
to the present time," is as follows : 

For printing 700 circulars, - - $16 00 

" " 460 blank tables, - - 5 50 



Amounting in the whole to - - ^21 60 



4 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, 

In " designating particnlarly the object'' of the first 
item above named, I would further state, that the Board, 
on the day of their organization, issued an "Address to 
the people of Massachusetts," containing the following 
clauses : — " It is obvious, however, that, with the limited 
powers possessed by the Board, the success of its efforts 
must depend mainly on the general and cordial co-opera- 
tion of the people ; and it is the object of this address to 
call upon the friends of education, throughout the Com- 
monwealth, to come to the aid of the Board in the dis- 
charge of this duty. It has been judged by the under- 
signed, that this co-operation can in no way more effectu- 
ally be given, than by a convention, to be held in each 
county of the Co!r,monwealth, at some convenient time 
in the course of the summer and autumn." " It is pro- 
posed, that the time of holding these meetings should be 
arranged by the Secretary hereafter, in such manner as 
best to promote the public convenience, with a view to 
general attendance, and so as to allow the Secretary to 
be present at each county convention." " Seasonable 
notice of the time of holding each county convention will 
be duly given." 

The circular, above mentioned, was addressed to the 
school committees of the several towns, and one of its 
objects was, to give notice of the time and place of hold- 
ing the county conventions. It having been made the 
duty of the Secretary of the Board to " collect information 
of the actual condition and efficiency of the common 
schools and other means of popular education," the circu- 
lar contained several questions pertaining to that subject; 
and it was from the answers to these questions that inany 
of the facts were obtained which were embodied in the 
report of the Secretary to the Board, dated January 1, 



1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 5 

1838. To obtain those facts was another object of the 
circulars. 

The object of the blank tables, — charged at five dollars 
and fi(ty cents, — was to facilitate the preparation of the 
" Annual Abstract of the school returns" for 1837. That 
preparation was a work of great labor, occupying myself 
and a clerk not less than four weeks. The printing of 
the tables saved the writing of a hundred letter-paper 
pages. 

In regard to both the al-ove items, it is proper to add, 
that, as there was no specific enactment of the Legisla- 
ture that such printing should be done, I informed the 
printers for the State, when I applied to them, that if 
their bills were not allowed by the committee on accounts, 
I would pay them myself. Never having been called 
upon by them, I presume said bills were allowed by the 
committee. 

The above two items, amounting to ^21.50, are the 
only expenses, so far as I know, "incurred by the Board 
or by its Secretary for printing." 

The standing laws of the State have required the 
printing of other documents, in relation to our common 
schools. Formerly this was all done under the supervis- 
ion of the Secretary of State. Since the establishment 
of the Board of Education, a portion of it has been di- 
rected, by law, to be done under theirs. As the order of 
the Senate may possibly be construed so as to embrace 
these items, I will particularize them, according to the 
best of my knowledge. 

For many years past, an '* Abstract of the school re- 
turns" has been annually jjreprired under the direction of 
the Secretary of State. The act appointing the Board 
provided, that thereafter, they, instejid of the Secretary 



6 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, 

of State, should "prepare and lay before the Legislature, 
in a printed form, on or before the second Wednesday in 
January, annually, an abstract of the school returns." In 
compliance with this provision of law, the number of 
seventeen hundred and fifty copies of the abstract, — the 
sairie number which had been printed in former years, — 
was prepared by the Secretary of the Board, under its 
direction, and distributed among the members as in 
former years. The cost of these was ^804 75. The 
"object" is presumed to have been to furnish the mem- 
bers of the Legislature with statistical facts in relation to 
the system of public instruction, in order that they might 
be sup|)lied with a basis for intelligent legislation respect- 
ing the schools. 

by the law of 1838, ch. 105, §6, the Board were di- 
rected to prescribe a blank form of a register to be kept 
in all the town and district schools in the Commonwealth, 
and the Secretary of State was directed to forward a 
sufficient number of copies of the same to the school 
committees of the respective towns. In obedience to 
this law, the Board prepared a form and the Secretary of 
State caused twenty thousand copies of the same to be 
printed and forwarded. The cost of printing was ^430.- 
56. In former years, the returns of the school commit- 
tees had been, in many important particulars, conjecKiral 
and, of course, inaccurate. The "object" of the register 
was to supply the several school committees with an ac- 
curate knowledge of facts, in order that their returns for 
the "Annual Abstracts" might be a guide and not a de- 
lusion. 

By the law of 1838, ch. 159, § 1, it was made the 
duty of the Secretary of the Board of Education annually 
to visit each county in the State, for the purpose of at- 



1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 7 

tending county meetings of the friends of education, and 
he was required to give " sufficient notice" of these 
county meetings. For the purpose of giving this notice 
and of collecting information, as before staled, one thous- 
and circulars were printed, in the month of July last, 
and sent to the school committees of the several towns. 
The cost of printing was ^24.75. 

The above are all the expenses for printing, so far as 
1 know, with which the Board of Education or its Secre- 
tary have had any connexion. 

Tiie next clause in the order relates to the " amount 
paid to the sheriffs of the several counties, and to others 
who may have received a compensation from the State 
for the distributing said documents.'' 

A part of the circulars of 1837 were sent through the 
hands of the sheriffs. A part of them I sent by mail, 
paying the postage thereon. The registers and circu- 
lars of 1838, were sent by the sheriffs. Most of the 
above, however, were sent with other packages, which it 
was the duty of the Secretary of State to transmit to the 
towns. I have been informed that the sheriffs were al- 
lowed forty cents for the delivery of each separate pack- 
age in the year 1837, and fifty cents in the year 1838. 
How, or in what proportions, this charge should be di- 
vided among the packages sent, I am unable to say. 

So far as I know, this is the only expense " for the 
distributing," with which the Board has been in any way 
connected. 

There is one fact, however, in regard to the expense 
of distribution, which in order to prevent any misap- 
prehension, it may be proper for me to state. At the 
last anniversary of the American Institute of Instruction, 
August, 1838, a lecture was delivered by David P. Page, 
Esq., of Newburyport, ♦* On the Mutual duties of Pa- 



8 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, 

rents and Teachers," which contained so many excellent 
suggestions, was so eminently practical, and seemed 
to me so well fitted to do good to all who would read it, 
that, at my own expense, I caused an edition of three 
thousand copies to be printed for the purpose of present- 
ing one to the teacher of each public school in the State. 
These, I requested the Secretary of State to forward, 
with other documents, which he was then sending into 
the several towns. This he kindly consented to do. Pro- 
bably no additional charge will ever be made, on this 
account, but as it is possible there may be, I thought it 
my duty to note the fact. 

To that part of the " order" which relates to com- 
pensation, received by " others" besides sheriffs for dis- 
tributing documents, I reply, that nothing, to my knowl- 
edge, has ever been so received by any one. 

The last clause in the " order" relates to " all other 
expenditures of said Board of Education or said Secre- 
tary in the performance of the duties assigned them, and 
the compensation they each receive." 

As an account of " all expenditures of said Board of 
Education or said Secretary in the performance of the 
duties assigned them" is here requested, and as this is 
connected with an inquiry as to the " compensation they 
each receive," I infer that it is the object of the Senate 
to learn the general expenses of the Board and of its 
Secretary " in the performance of their duties," in order 
that the same may be compared with their "compensa- 
tion" or reimbursement. It is obvious, that parts of 
these expenditures cannot be exactly ascertained. Tak- 
ing the records of the Board for data, I proceed to state 
them as nearly as practicable. 

1st. As to the "expenditures" of the Board. The 



1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 9 

Board, or the executive committee of the Board, have held 
twelve meetings in the city of Boston, since its organiza- 
tion. For the purpose of attending these meetings, and 
in visiting different towns in the State in order to deter- 
mine their relative eligibility as sites for Normal Schools, 
not less than from one hundred and thirty to one hundred 
and fifty days of time have been wholly occupied, and the 
necessary travel has amounted to about four thousand miles. 
For this amount of their time, nothing, of course, has 
been charged, as the members of the Board receive no 
compensation for their personal services. The whole 
amount received on paid, and due on unpaid warrants for 
the above travel, for board, postage, or any incidental 
charges, bringing the accounts down to the present time, 
is ^358 36. Probably two-thirds of this time and travel 
were rendered necessary by the new duties, imposed upon 
the Board at the last session in relation to the establish- 
ment of Normal Schools. The above, however, does 
not probably include half the time and services of the 
Board in the discharge of their duties, for which there 
must have been " expenditures," but all such services 
and expenditures have been gratuitous. As one, among 
many items of additional labor, it may be mentioned, 
that most of the members of the Board have carefully 
examined as many as fifty volumes of works in order to 
decide upon their fitness for a common school library. In 
the above statement, the time, services, and expenses of 
the governor and lieutenant governor are not included. 
Each of them is ex officio a member of the Board, and 
their services are rendered without charge. 

2d. As to the "expenditures" of the Secretary ol 
the Board, as compared with his " compensation." 
My duties were specifically prescribed by the 24 1st ch. 
2 



I 



10 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, 

of the statutes of 1837, and the 159th ch. of the statutes 
of 1838. After accepting the appointment of the Board, 
I was requested by them to prepare the " Annual Abstract 
of the School Returns," for 1837. Although this was no 
part of my duty, yet I gladly undertook, the labor, as I 
was desirous of having the Abstract in an improved form, 
of adding some new items to the information it should 
contain, and of presenting the county aggregates sepa- 
rately, which had never been done before. It made a 
document of more than 300 pages, and occupied myself 
and a clerk at least four weeks. I paid the clerk ^45 
out of my own pocket. Neither for my own services in 
relation to this matter nor for the money paid for clerk- 
hire have I ever charged any thing or ever expected to. 

Immediately after my appointment, I began to receive 
letters from all parts of the State, on various subjects, 
connected with common school education, and have un- 
doubtedly received and answered more than a thousand 
within the last eighteen months. I think my postage 
bills cannot have been less than ^150. After the law 
passed for the establishment of Normal Schools, great in- 
terest was manifested in different parts of the State in re- 
gard to the location of those schools. This led to cor- 
respondence with the board, and most of it, was carried 
on through me. This of course increased both labor and 
expense. As the law had made it no part of my duty 
either to perform any service or to incur any expense in 
regard to Normal Schools, I consulted with some of the 
members of the Board at their meeting in the last week 
of last December, and they were of opinion that my ex- 
penses for postage, stationary, &;c. were a part of the in- 
cidental expenses of the Board, provided for in the act of 
1838, ch. 55. 



1839.] SENATE— No. 51. ft 

I have kept no exact account of *' expenditures " for 
stationary, but I suppose that for the preparation of the 
" Abstract" before mentioned, for correspondence, reports, 
&c. it must have been thirty or forty dollars. 

Applications having been received by the Board from 
twelve different places in the State to have one of the 
Normal Schools established in their respective vicinities, 
and the Board, deeming it advisable that several of those 
places should be visited in order to determine their relative 
eligibility, as before stated, I was appointed on all the 
committees raised for that purpose. In serving on these 
committees, I travelled more than three hundred miles, 
the expense of which was probably $30 more. This was 
all additional to my travel in visiting the counties as pre- 
scribed by law. At the meeting of the Board in Decem- 
ber last, I made the following charges on account of the 
above expenses, which were allowed by the board, viz. 
on account of all my postage I charged ^5, for station- 
ary ^10, and for visiting different places in the State in 
reference to Normal Schools, ^17, making in the whole 
$52, or less than one fourth part of what I had in fact 
expended, exclusive of the ^45 paid for clerk hire, and 
$50 paid for the edition of the lecture before mentioned, 
for which no charge was ever expected to be made. 

My salary from July 1, 1837, to April 21, 1839, was 
at the rate of ^1000 a year. Since the last named 
time, it has been at the rate of ^1500 a year. About 
half this sum is absorbed in travelling and other necessary 
"expenditures;" the residue is the "compensation" I 
receive for my whole time and such services as I am able 
to render. 

I believe I have now answered each branch of the 
" order" of the Senate, with the particularity it indica- 



LibKHKT ur v^uiNUi\c.o 



^ 



12 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [ 021 526 187 6 

ted. In speaking of services, performed at the request of 
the Board, but not required by law, I wish it to be under- 
stood, that I have not referred to them for the purpose of 
objecting in the slightest degree to the labor of those ser- 
vices, but only for the purpose of distinguishing between 
the "expenditures,", .which properly belonged to my of- 
fice, and those which did not ; — and should any thing in 
this statement seem too personal, as it regards myself, I 
trust an apology may be found in the fact, that when an 
inquiry is made of a public officer, respecting expenses, 
he may have incurred, none but the fullest explanation is 
likely to be satisfactory. 

Very respectfully, 

HORACE MANN, 

Secretary of the Board of Education, 

Boston, March Uth, 1839. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 526 187 6 



